James Regan from Townhead is competing in bowls, archery and tenpin bowling at the Transplant Games in North Lanarkshire (Image: Norman Inglis/Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser)

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WHEN James Regan joins his Lanarkshire team mates at tomorrow’s opening ceremony of the Westfield Health British Transplant Games at Ravenscraig, he will cast his mind back to the 2014 Commonwealth Games curtain-raiser.

The Townhead man had just finished watching the Glasgow 2014 opening when he received the crucial phone call telling him to rush to hospital for a kidney transplant.

Speaking at the Lanarkshire team’s gathering – on the third anniversary of his transplant – he said: “I’d finished watching the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, with all the teacakes dancing about, and got the call just as I’d finished my home dialysis and was about to go to bed.

“The doctors from the Western Infirmary asked me to come in; all the roads were blocked off because of the Games opening ceremony, and we eventually found a way down a one-way street.

“My transplant took place in the morning, and it’s been absolutely brilliant. I have a lot more energy, and I’ve never looked back.”

The anniversary of his operation is an especially poignant time for James, who said: “It’s my donor’s anniversary as well, and I think about that.

“It’s a very special gift that they’ve given.”

The annual Transplant Games – taking place in North Lanarkshire this week – aim to raise awareness of organ donation and increase sign-ups to the NHS donor register, and James is passionate about supporting that.

“It’s made a massive difference in my life; I go about daily business just feeling everything’s normal.”

Monklands members of Team Lanarkshire at the 2017 Transplant Games; from left, Marie Grant, James Regan, Craig Ferguson and Joe Allan (Image: Norman Inglis/Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser)

James, 54, was serving in the RAF when a 1991 medical indicated the early stages of kidney disease.

He said: “The kidney was a slow decline over the next 20 years; in early 2014 it deteriorated to the point they were keeping a close eye on me and by June it just levelled out and they decided they’d need to put me on dialysis.

“I was very, very lucky – I had six weeks in total of dialysis before I got the call and had a new kidney. I was pretty fortunate.

“Everything happened at once over that summer; it all came as a bit of a blur and though I’d had 20 years to prepare, it all happened so fast. The nurses and doctors were great in looking after me.”

James was able to return to his job in IT support just nine weeks after his transplant.

Now he is trying his hand at archery, ten-pin bowling and indoor bowls – the latter in his hometown – at the Games in Lanarkshire and has already set his sights on the 2018 event in Birmingham.

He said: “I just fancied a go at those sports. There’s six of us in the bowls team and we’ve been out practising for the past three weeks.

“I got involved as it’s the first time Lanarkshire has had a team. It’s a great event and it’s time to give something back.”